This video is called, Have you Seen My Course Reviews? By Mike Pitt. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can . Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London.

This post may contain affiliate links, please read our disclosure for more info.

In this video, Mike Pitt discusses, Have you Seen My Course Reviews? This video is about courses that Mike has purchased, studied and then reviewed. Mike has taken quite a few online courses and has created a YouTube playlist entitled ‘Reviews.’   to keep all his reviews in one place.

This video will be of interest to content creators, business owners, B2B marketing managers, Content Marketing professionals, Social Media Managers and others who study online courses to learn new skills.

Course Reviews

During the current global pandemic, most of us have more time on our hands, time that can be used very productively if we use dedicate ourselves to self- improvement via online learning. Of course, not all courses are created equally. In the video, I discuss course reviews for courses that I have taken, please watch the individual review videos to hear my thoughts in detail.

Take Action

Are you considering taking an online course? Now is an excellent time to do so. If you are, let me know which course you are planning to take in the comments below.

If you’ve liked this post you will also like the following posts:

Reviews Playlist

LinkedIn: Advice for B2B Businesses Playlist

How to Increase LinkedIn Company Page Followers

Why I Stopped Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn: Company Page Followers No Longer Viewable

How I Follow Up With LinkedIn Searchers

LinkedIn: How to Approach Leads the Right Way

Is Steemit Dead? 

How to use Telegram for New Business – Part 1

LinkedIn: Inside an Engagement Pod – Part 1.

LinkedIn Storytelling: How to Tell Stories on LinkedIn

My Most Viewed Post on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Advice For B2B Businesses – Playlist

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

Follow Mike on Twitter 

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This is video number 361 and blog post number 559

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Is Vine Dead? by Mike Pitt. :
This is video number 148 and blog post number 357. Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd. Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London. In this video Mike Pitt answer the question, Is Vine Dead?  He also discusses other video apps and platforms.

Is Vine Dead?

Hello everyone. Thanks for coming back to the channel. Recently I have noticed a trend that has caused me to ask, Is Vine Dead? Keep watching and I will give you my thoughts after the break. Top Viners King Bach with 15.7 million followers and Lele Pons with 11.1 million followers have started to promote their YouTube channels more. Lele Pons has 500K subsrcribers on YouTube and King Bach has 880K subscribers on YouTube.

The reason for this is that it is easier to achieve monetisation on YouTube than it is on Vine. On Vine once you are recognised as an influencer, as Bach and Lele are, you still need to broker sponsorship deals with brands. On YouTube Adsense revenue will come into to you dependent to the number of views and ads shown against those views. This is a clearer way to bring in revenue.

Video Content

Also Vine has been in competition with other apps in the video app space. Vine has 200 million monthly active users but Instagram has 400 million monthly active users. Facebook, the Daddy of all of them, has 1.65 biillion monthly active users. YouTube has 1 billion monthy active users and Snapchat has 100 million daily active users and amasses 10 billion views per day, yes, daily! One of these video apps was going to get squeezed and it looks like Vine has been squeezed. Now it seems to be lagging behind Instagram, Facebook Live and Snapchat. YouTube is a more stable environment for revenue growth and for these top entertainers to monetise their audiences.

What does this mean for you as a Business to Business content creator? It probably means that you should focus or re-focus on YouTube. Instagram has a lot of buzz around it and so does Snapchat but there are not so many models and case studies of B2B businesses using them. YouTube is still the best video choice for you. It’s fine to experiment with Instagram and Snapchat but YouTube should be the basis of your video content strategy. This is very much the lesson from what the top Viners have done, they have changed their focus and frequency of uploads on Vine and are now focusing on YouTube.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

We hope you find this information useful.

Best wishes,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Subscribe to

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Online courses:
How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
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This is blog post post number 357.

The post Is Vine Dead? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Social Media is Not Free By Mike Pitt. This is video number 149 and blog post number 356. Mike Pitt is the Founder of Marketing Fundamentals Ltd. In this video post Mike Pitt explains why Social Media is Not Free.

Social Media is Not Free

Many marketing agencies and individuals regularly mention that Social Media is free. This information is incorrect because Social Media is not free. There is not a cost for creating an account on the most popular Social Media platforms but there is still a very real human resource cost. Using UK salaries as an example, if you are paying a Digital Marketing Executive an annual salary of £24,000.00 and they are primary engaged in Social Media then your monthly cost is £2000.00 per month. National Insurance employer contributions would need to be added to this figure of course. Business owners must be conscious of the investment they are already making in Social Media.

Given that financial investment is being made it would be preferable to consider specialist Content Marketing Agencies who have proven experience delivering a good Return on Investment for their clients rather than a member of staff picked primarily because of their age. It is definitely worth serious consideration.

Mike makes additional points in the video, please click here to watch it.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

We hope you find this information useful.

Best wishes,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Subscribe to

Follow us on LinkedIn

Online courses:
How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

Follow Mike on Twitter

The post Social Media is Not Free appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This is blog post 343. This blog post is an answer I gave on Quora to the question, In your experience, which Social Network is the most engaged?  I decided to share it here because I believe it will help those of you who work in B2B marketing.

—

Hello.

Which Social Network is the Most Engaged?

Let’s pretend that all social networks are equally relevant for your audience and/ or community. Of course they are not but let’s pretend. Which Social Network is the most engaged? I would say that right now Snapchat is the most engaged social network.

Snapchat User Engagement

In January of this year Snapchat announced that Snapchat users were watching 7 billion video views per day. This figure has now risen to 8 billion. This figure is impressive in itself but even more so when it is considered that it comes from a base of 100 million users. Facebook views are comparable but from a base of over 1 billion users. You Tube also has comparable daily view numbers but from a base of 1.3 billion active users.

Snapchat is different to other social networks in a few ways. For example, it is not easy to work out with any certainty how many followers someone has on the platform. It has not yet been monetized by marketing people (I am guilty of being one) but has a highly engaged youthful audience.

I am a passive user on the platform and I am currently exploring the new Geo Filters functionality. I think Snapchat will grow significantly over the next 12-18 months. If you want to follow me on Snapchat my username is TheMikePitt.  I look forward to seing you there.

—

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms.

If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

I hope you find this information useful.

Best wishes,

Mike Pitt

Founder & CEO

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

SnapChat: Username – TheMikePitt

Follow Mike on Quora

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Buy our book!

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This is blog post number 343.

The post In Your Experience, Which Social Network is the Most Engaged? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

2018 Update

Qzzr no longer offers a free service but they do offer a free 14 day trial. There is also another company called Riddle Quiz Maker who also offer a free 14 day trial.    There is no credit card required for the Riddle Quiz Maker trial. 

Qzzr is an online tool that allows you to create quizzes quickly, post them anywhere on the web, view on any device, and easily track your results. The company was founded in 2013 by Americans, Josh Little and Bucky Flowers who were driven to create an easy-to-use web tool that allowed its users to create beautiful, ‘shareable’ quizzes. Before founding Qzzr, Little founded and exited several companies, including Maestro and Bloomfire. He claims that his “greatest asset to a venture is my ability to create magic in the first 12-18 months.” His partner-in-arms, Flowers, is passionate about user experience and draws upon his background in Psychology to make seamless UIs. What resulted was a great product with an easy-to-use interface which has attracted the likes of  Yahoo!, ESPN, Mashable, Reddit and Entrepreneur.com.

Qzzr’s Value for Marketers

• Create Quizzes Quickly – Qzzr’s best feature has to be its simple interface. The platform allows you to customise your quiz, change your background and embed your quiz on your site effortlessly. It even allows you to upload .gifs or images for individual responses to your questions to make your quiz more visually engaging. Within an hour, you could have your first quiz embedded on your site today.

• Re-purpose Old Content – One great thing about producing a quiz is that you can re-purpose your existing content to create it. By its nature, a quiz is a marketing tool which is predicated on knowledge you already have. To prevent plagiarism in your text please use this link .

Quiz Tip 1: If you’ve created any checklists in the past, such as our 10 Successful Blog Post Title Ideas blog piece, then why not create a quiz that uses these tips as your launch point? Using our title as an example, you could make a quiz – How Engaging Are Your Blog Post Titles? Take the Quiz. By re-fashioning content that you already have, Qzzr is a great tool to freshen up existing content. It also allows you to uncover which areas your perspective leads need help in based on the questions that they get incorrect. This is a great way to generate targeted ideas for future posts which you know will bring value to your prospects.

• Sharability – According to recent data published by BuzzSumo, on average quizzes get shared 1,900 times. That’s significantly higher than what you can expect for infographics or long-form written content. Quizzes also typically take less time to create due to the lack of research needed. The benefit of increasing your content’s reach for the relatively small amount of time needed to create a quiz makes Qzzr a tool with an excellent ROI for marketers.

Quiz Tip 2: For graded quizzes which calculate how many answers someone gets correct, almost 80% of shares typically come from people who scored in the top 20%, oppose to only 12% of shares which come from scores of 69% and below. If your objective for your quiz is to increase your content’s reach then I suggest making a graded quiz which is easy to ace.

Low scores means low shares and nobody wins. It is an important aspect of content marketing that you should always be thinking about the next step for your prospect. If they get a high score, they will think that they are clever enough to download your white paper on that topic, and so on. Alternatively, your objective might be to drive traffic to your website. In that instance, make sure you spend a few minutes making an engaging title which is likely to make people want to click on your link. When making you quiz, ensure that you always have your end goal in mind.

• Follow-Up On Your Leads – Another great feature of Qzzr is that by making use of its paid service you can generate valuable leads. This is useful because it enables marketers to follow up on their prospects in an informed way. Sideshow Collectibles used this feature to generate over $75, 000 USD with their Which Star Wars Bounty Hunter Are You? quiz by creating a custom call-to-action upon completion which included a link to a discount on the relevant action figure in their store. This strategy can be easily utilised by B2B companies. If someone scores over 80% on your quiz, you could link them to your lead generating freemium offer on your website, such as a .pdf or white paper.

• Create Custom Calls-to-Action – Qzzr’s paid service allows you to capture a prospect’s e-mail, which is valuable for sharing your future content with them. You can also create custom calls-to-action to send someone to a landing page. This is an easy and effective way for you to drive likes or followers to your social media accounts.

Last week, we published a Qzzr quiz – Are You a Twitter Expert?  Why not take two minutes to get a feel for the platform and see how easily Qzzr can be embedded into your site and content marketing strategy.

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

If you need help planning and implementing your content marketing strategy or with Social Media, give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247 or email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com. Marketing Fundamentals Ltd are a leading B2B Content Marketing Agency in London. We create Content and use Social Media to build relationships with your prospective and existing customers or supporters.

Best regards,

Karla McDougall
Digital Marketing Intern

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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This is blog post number 277.

The post What is Qzzr? appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Vine vs Instagram

1. Longevity

Whilst this is admittedly a minor issue as far as Internet technology is concerned and is less important than user numbers, it does have some relevance to potential advertisers. Vine, launched on January 24th 2013 has the edge here. Although Instagram has been around since October 2010, it has only been possible to post videos on the platform since June 20th 2013. This means that Vine users are more familiar with the format and may therefore be more receptive to short creative marketing videos.

2. User numbers

Instagram is the clear winner in this category, with over 150 million active users although most of these users were acquired before video was introduced and owe more to its origins as a photo sharing platform. Vine has 40 million users.

3. Activity

Things begin to look a little worse for Vine in this category. Whilst you would naturally expect more active users to translate into more activity, it is not a linear function as far as tweets are concerned. Instagram has a 6 to 1 lead over Vine in terms of tweets, compared to a user number ratio of roughly 3.75. However, these figures do not tell the whole story as outlined in the next section.

4. Functionality

Vine videos are more visible in the Twitter community owing to the fact that they are previewed in the iPhone and Android Twitter apps. This means that all users need to do to view the content is to tap on the Vine video preview in Twitter. Whilst Instagram content can be tweeted, the lack of a visual preview means that it has less immediate impact.

5. Format

Vine videos are limited to 6 seconds whereas Instagram ones can be up to 15 seconds in length. There is no clear winner in this category but the different lengths mean that one platform may be more suitable than the other for different marketing techniques. If, for example, you wish to create a more conventional advertisement for distribution online, Instagram’s longer format will probably be the best choice. On the other hand, the 6-second format that Vine employs has encouraged advertisers to be more creative and there are many excellent examples of how it can be used to great effect.

6. Making a choice

Now you know a little more about what each platform has to offer, you should be in a better position to make an informed decision when planning new online video marketing campaigns. It is important to remember that whichever platform you choose, you need to have a team in place to answer the consumer enquiries that your promotional clip generates.

The following summary may be of some help if you need a quick reference when making a final decision.

Winners

• Longevity – Vine
• User numbers – Instagram
• Activity – Instagram
• Functionality – Vine
• Format – a draw

Whilst I have attempted to remain objective throughout this review, please bear in mind that personal preferences always influence one’s opinions and your experiences with these platforms are unlikely to be identical to mine. In closing, I firmly believe that both are useful weapons to keep in your marketing arsenal.

This guest post was written by Juliet Martin who is an Instagram user by preference. She also writes on behalf of Regus, a global provider of flexible office spaces and business solutions.

Do you want to incorporate Vine or Instagram into your Content Marketing strategy? Give us a call on +44 845 2264 247 or email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com to start the conversation.

We hope you have found this information useful. You may also like this, Is it time to Vine?  and Which Brands are Winning on Vine? – 5 Brands that ‘Do it For The Vine’

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

The post Vine versus Instagram Video – Which should you use and why? Guest post appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

5 reasons why business storytelling will lead to greater engagement with your Target Audience

1. Emotional and not rational connection – Storytelling will build an emotional rather than a rational connection with your audience. Stories connect people – Ideally you will have both a rational and an emotional connection over time but connecting with your audience emotionally is a major plus.

2. Broader appeal – A well told story will have a broader appeal than a product demonstration or list of product benefits. Film-making is storytelling.

3. Memorable – People remember stories and the connection to your product/services rather than product claims.

4. Ideas/ themes – Stories can contain ideas and themes that are bigger than products.

5. Cultural relevance – Storytelling is part of the human experience and developed along side speech and language.

Parents of young children know very well the power of the bed-time story and its importance to their children’s development. Once you are able to harness storytelling in your content you will create a stronger relationship with your customers and prospects.

Need help creating stories for your business? Give us a call on +44 845 2264 247 or email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com to start the conversation.

We hope you have found this information useful.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

The post Entrepreneurs – Once upon a time – 5 reasons why storytelling will lead to greater engagement appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Hello all,

July 2015 Update : We Are Hiring a Videographer

We are currently looking for an experienced videographer to help us deliver exciting new projects. Is that you? If so, send me a link to your work and if it is of sufficient quality and relevance we will be in touch to set up a meeting. Remember that Content is practically my middle name so those who send great content and demonstrate an individual / different style will rise above the majority.

Role Outline

As a Videographer you will have a genuine interest in video content and creativity, youll have proven experience of filming (including audio capture) and producing high quality video content, working to tight deadlines and budgets. You will also be familiar with using and distributing video content as part of a content marketing strategy.

Youll be competent in using editing packages (including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premier Pro), with excellent understanding and experience of video compression and optimization for online streaming ability.

A full job specification will be sent to those shortlisted for interview. Unfortunately we will not be able to reply to all unsuccessful applicants.

Don’t delay as the time to act is now – Send your name and links to your online portfolio to mail@marketingfundamentals.com

We look forward to watching your submissions. No recruitment consultancies or video production companies, please.  Thank you!

—

Business owners, marketing professionals & solo -preneurs – If you would like to discuss your marketing requirements please give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247 or drop me an an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com 

We look forward to hearing from you too.

Best regards,

Mike Pitt

Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, Blogger, Author, Content Creator

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Hello everyone. This is not the post that I was scheduled to write for today. Readers of my book ‘How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog’ will know that I have a methodology to generate an on-going stream of content. Last week I read about high street retailer Jessops going into administration and then yesterday HMV. These two events caused me to change tack and I want to reach out to those people who are now facing redundancy at Jessops, HMV and elsewhere.

1. Dreams – Blow the cobwebs off your dreams. Remember your dreams? Those that you had in your youth before you were living a month to month existence. Okay, so maybe you won’t now become Arsenal’s best striker but redundancy can be an opportunity to do what you really want to do rather than what you settled on doing to pay your bills.

2. Hope – The Return of real hope – Not hope that you can get through this month or the year but genuine hope that you will feel excited again and wake each day keen to find out what the day has in store – just as you did as a child.

3. Signal – If you are looking for a sign this is it! It takes courage to start something new or follow a new path. Maybe this is the ‘push’ that you needed.

4. Happiness – Don’t chase money – chase happiness. This is a fundamental life lesson that you need to learn and if you go about it in the right way happiness will lead to a greater sense of fulfilment, success and money too. Need an example? – here’s one lady who set up her own company after she was made redundant from her marketing job. Her picture is above and her name is Michelle Mone

5. Work and life Does your work/life balance need re-booting? Were you working all hours and neglecting your friends and family? This is an opportunity to correct that and be present in the lives of the people who matter most to you.

If you have been or are about to be made redundant I want you to see it as an opportunity. Your mindset is very important. If you are between 18-30 consider applying for a Start Up Loan We will be happy to help you with the marketing of your business so give us a call on +44 (0) 845 226247 or drop us an email via mail@marketingfundamentals.com – We look forward to hearing from you.

We hope you find this information useful.

Mike Pitt
Founder & CEO
Marketing Fundamentals Ltd

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How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
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The post Budding entrepreneurs – 5 reasons why redundancy is often opportunity disguised as a crisis appeared first on Marketing Fundamentals.

Business can be pretty cut throat at times but it’s usually not life threatening unlike the world of organised crime. In the spirit of previous tongue-in-cheek posts today we explore the lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from Mafia Dons. Unlike many large international organisations, the Mafia also known as the La Cosa Nostra does not have an easy to read ‘operations manual’ or a ‘brand bible’. It is very much a results- driven business with opportunities for fast advancement up the hierarchy. Below are the six top tips for entrepreneurs, with clear lessons for budding and established entrepreneurs taken from the Mafia.

Learn From the Mafia: Tips for Entrepreneurs

1.  Gut Instinct 

To survive figuratively and literally in the Mafia you must listen to your gut instinct and act on it at all times. Revenue forecasts and gant charts are fine but your gut instinct will keep you operational.

2. 100% Robust Referral Network

Everyone accepted into the organisation or as a partner or affiliate needs to be personally vouched for usually by an existing member of the organisation of at least a certain rank. We are not talking about Facebook ‘likes’ here as the penalties for mistakes in this area are quite harsh – death being the usual one.

3. International Alliances/ Partnerships

To be successful in the Mafia you will need to establish international alliances and partnerships that build scale and the productive capabilities of your organisation.

4. Rigid Control of the Supply Chain

To remain successful over a long period of time it is essential that you have a rigid control of the supply chain and are not at the mercy of unreliable or expensive suppliers.

5. Code of Conduct

Despite the lack of a operations manual there is a very clear code of conduct within the Mafia and this together with a definable organisational culture is precisely what you will need for the success of your enterprise.

6. Recruitment Policy 

Cultural fit is vitally important so whether your recruitment policy is dependent on family ties to the ‘Old Country’ and place of birth or a clearly articulated recruitment strategy and process it must also be consistently implemented. Mistakes can prove very costly.

If you’ve liked this post you will also like the following posts: 

B2B Content Marketing Agency London

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.

We are not going to promise to help you run your business like the Mafia for obvious reasons but if you need our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

On our YouTube channel you will find marketing advice, business advice & inspiration. Subscribe if you work in Marketing for Professional Services or are a business owner or solo-preneur trying to grow your business. New uploads on Wednesdays.

Best regards,

Marketing Fundamentals Team

Follow Mike on Pinterest

Subscribe to

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Online courses:

How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog
Meet Edgar Social Media Management
TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence
Quora For Business

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Image credit:  The Untouchables, Paramount Pictures – 1987 

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